Euro Docs take the longest vacations!

adunkin

I see all these ladies in the US complaining about how their doctor's office was closed one or two days for New Years and they want to get in touch with their doctor about X, Y or Z and can't.

Poor DH had a spermogram on Dec. 10 and the results weren't in before the Dr's office closed on Dec. 20. It will reopen after the holiday closure on Jan 7 and we will hopefully be able to get the results then (assuming we can get through to the doc as everyone else will be calling in that day too).

Getting such long vacations is nice for those getting it, But seriously it seems like at any given time at least one of my medical professionals is on a 2+ week vacation and it sort of drives me a bit crazy as the patient!

Vent over. 

tlew12778

Depends where you are I guess. I'm in Italy and my DH is a surgeon. But specialists aside, your GP ALWAYS has a substitute here. It's the law. When it is the weekend or holiday, there is a telemedicine line and they will send a dr to your house this is all with the public system. Labs only close on major holidays and certainly not for 2 weeks! Hospital labs are always open.

I also have the cell phone numbers of all my doctors. That is standard practice here as answering services are almost nonexistent.

kelly321

tlew12778:

Depends where you are I guess. I'm in Italy and my DH is a surgeon. But specialists aside, your GP ALWAYS has a substitute here. It's the law. When it is the weekend or holiday, there is a telemedicine line and they will send a dr to your house this is all with the public system. Labs only close on major holidays and certainly not for 2 weeks! Hospital labs are always open. I also have the cell phone numbers of all my doctors. That is standard practice here as answering services are almost nonexistent.

Yes, but that doesn't mean the substitute would have access to the patient's records for lab results as is the OP's problem. I have had to go to my GP's sub when she was on vacation before for illness, though.

Thankfully my OB opened for one day each week last week and this for his pregnant patients. This was exactly the timeframe when I got HELLP with DD, so I was very grateful that I didn't have to go to the hospital for prenatal checkups during the holidays.

adunkin

I don't need a doc. (I'm sure there is a sub doc if I needed medical help.) However, I would like the lab results. And the answering service made it clear that only my doc can release the lab results to me and she'll be back after her 3 week vacation.

But that's Belgium. Or at least life with French speakers in Belgium. Very very lax about oh so many things. Eventually you learn to just shrug get over it. (With the occasional rant/vent, of course.) 

MouseInLux

I'm lucky and have a strange OB, she takes vacations at strange times so I had an appointment on Jan 2nd!

adunkin

MouseInLux:

I'm lucky and have a strange OB, she takes vacations at strange times so I had an appointment on Jan 2nd!

Nice! I did get in touch with her on her first day back in the office. Now I'm just waiting to get a copy of the results in the mail. We'll see how long that takes.